A Presidential Scholarship recipient at Tel Aviv University, Pablo Utin has taught film and television courses in Tel Aviv.

With three Academy Award-nominated Best Foreign Language films produced within the last three years, the international movie-making industry has noticed Israel can create powerful and inspiring films. Visiting Film Scholar Pablo Utin will be teaching a specialty course at the University of Miami’s School of Communication this fall semester titled Contemporary Israeli Cinema, which examines this emerging cinema.

Utin, who was born in Argentina and immigrated to Israel as a teenager.

“This class looks at how issues affecting the country are represented in film, how politics are involved, and how cinematic film styles have changed over time,” said Utin.

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Chris Freet

University of Miami Director of Athletics Kirby Hocutt has announced the hiring of Chris Freet as the associate athletic director for communications. In this capacity, he oversees the Hurricanes’ sports media relations efforts and serves as the primary liaison with the department’s broadcast partner. He is also responsible for oversight of HurricaneSports.com.

Freet joins the Hurricanes’ staff after serving nearly three years as the assistant athletic director for communications at the University of South Florida and previously as the associate director of media relations at the University of Oklahoma.

“I’m pleased to welcome Chris to the University of Miami,” said Hocutt. “He is a dynamic, forward-thinking professional who will reinvigorate our external communications efforts and help position this program in the best possible way. Additionally, his enthusiasm and experience with social media will enhance our online product for fans as we strive to continually improve every facet of our program.”

“There are very few brands with a stronger presence in college athletics than Miami,” said Freet. “It’s a privilege to join the team and work with leaders like President Shalala, Director of Athletics Kirby Hocutt and head coach Randy Shannon. There are an abundance of positive, uplifting, and unique stories that haven’t been told about The U, and I look forward to bringing those stories to life on a local, regional, and national level.”

At USF, Freet’s accomplishments included redesigning the athletic department’s website which reached upwards of nine million impressions per fiscal year; leading social media efforts on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Digg; shifting core design skills of an entire staff from desktop publishing to web design, becoming the first Big East school to produce interactive media guides and cease the production of printed guides for all sports; and carving out budgetary dollars to create a multimedia video team.

In addition to his administrative duties for the Bulls, Freet managed the media relations efforts for the football program, helping it receive unprecedented national media coverage and honors.

Freet previously spent five years working in the athletics media relations department at Oklahoma, serving as the secondary contact for the football program, as well as the primary contact for women’s basketball, softball, volleyball, and men’s and women’s gymnastics.

The Mission Hills, California, native oversaw the successful promotion of Courtney Paris to 2007 Associated Press Player of the Year and played an integral part in the successful promotion of Heisman trophy winner Jason White and All-Americans Adrian Peterson, Mark Clayton, and Jammal Brown.

A 2002 graduate of the University of California Santa Barbara with a degree in communications, Freet married the former Courtney Tysinger in June and the couple resides in Coral Gables.

Patricia A. Brown

Patricia A. Brown, an internationally recognized expert in the field of international taxation, has been appointed director of the School of Law’s Graduate Tax Program, which is currently ranked fifth in the nation by U.S.News & World Report and has a 50-year tradition of excellence.

“Patricia Brown’s appointment as director should add tremendous strength to our already highly regarded tax program and give us unrivaled strength in international tax law,” said Dean Patricia D. White.

Brown is best known for overseeing and coordinating the U.S. tax treaty program as the Treasury Department’s deputy international tax counsel with responsibility for treaty affairs. In addition to ensuring consistency in terms of negotiations and interpretation, she was personally involved in the negotiation of all U.S. tax treaties and protocols that were enacted between 1999 and 2008. As a result, she has worked closely with government officials from every continent.

For much of 2005, she was acting international tax counsel, a role in which she was directly responsible for all international tax matters within the Office of Tax Policy. Since 2007 she has served as a full-time consultant to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, creating guidelines and procedures for the cross-border taxation of portfolio investors. Brown has also lectured on a variety of topics relating to tax treaties and cross-border financial transactions.

Michael Froomkin

The University of Miami School of Law has announced that Professor A. Michael Froomkin, an Internet and administrative law expert, will be awarded the Laurie Silvers and Mitchell Rubenstein Endowed Distinguished Professorship for the 2010-2011 academic year.

Professor Froomkin is the second recipient of the award. Last year, Professor Bruce Winick, a co-founder of the therapeutic jurisprudence field, became the first recipient.

“I am very honored to be awarded the Laurie Silvers and Mitchell Rubenstein Endowed Distinguished Professorship,” said Froomkin. “I hope I can live up to the achievements of the previous holder, Bruce Winick.”

Professor Froomkin, who joined UM Law in 1992, writes primarily about Internet governance, electronic democracy, and privacy. Other subjects include e-commerce, electronic cash, the regulation of cryptography, and U.S. constitutional law. He is a founder-editor of ICANNWatch, and serves on the editorial board of Information, Communication & Society and of I/S: A Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society. He is on the advisory boards of several organizations, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and is a member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London.

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Jessica Carvalho Morris

Jessica Carvalho Morris, director of the School of Law’s International Graduate Law Programs, has been elected vice chair of Amnesty International USA, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization.

Amnesty International has more than 2.8 million supporters in more than 150 countries, campaigning for human rights worldwide. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth, and dignity are denied. Carvalho Morris is the first Latina to serve as vice chair and is currently the only Latina on the board.

“I am honored to have been given this opportunity,” says Carvalho Morris, JD ’03. “This is a time when the world needs human rights more than ever before, and I hope that I can contribute to expanding our work, especially in the global south, particularly as we approach our 50th anniversary.”

Carvalho Morris’s father was tortured while serving as a U.S. missionary in Brazil during the military dictatorship. He was kidnapped by the Brazilian military and subjected to electric shocks, beatings, and food and sleep deprivation. After 17 days, he was expelled from Brazil even though official charges were never brought against him. As a result of her father’s experience, Carvalho Morris has dedicated her life to ending torture and other kinds of human rights violations in the world.

“I was born in exile in Costa Rica and raised in an environment where the promotion of human rights was a priority,” she says. “I want to stop torture. In Brazil I have represented women victims of domestic violence, and I have written and spoken about human rights violations. In the U.S. I have represented victims of human rights abuses and have also lectured about human rights.”

Amnesty International USA’s Board of Directors consists of 18 members. The vice chair serves as the chair of the Executive Director Oversight Committee and conducts the evaluation of the executive director; chairs the Governance Committee; and serves on the Executive Committee of the Board.

In addition to her role as vice chair, Carvalho Morris will also serve as the liaison to the Americas, partly due to her language skills, which include English, Spanish, Portuguese, and a knowledge of French.

Prior to joining UM Law, Carvalho Morris worked for the National Labor Relations Board as a field attorney and for Greenberg Traurig as an associate where she worked in a variety of civil and complex commercial litigation disputes relating to tax, contract, and employment issues.

She was the coordinator for the Miami Chapter of Amnesty International for five years, from 2004 to 2009. In that position, she led the organization of the largest Florida state conference in 2006 and the Southern Regional Conference in 2007, both at the University of Miami School of Law, and significantly expanded the fundraising and membership of the Miami chapter. She also co-chaired the Civil Rights Committee of the Florida Bar and was a member of the board for the Florida International University Women’s Center Advisory Council. Carvalho Morris has published and lectured on international human rights and aspects of Brazilian and American constitutional law.